Busy, busy, busy

I've neglected the blog for a bit now, haven't I? But I have an excuse or two. First, I suddenly got a job. Wasn't really expecting to get one, but I got an email asking if I'd be interested in some part time work from home, work that could be done around two small boys. I'd stopped looking for a part time job a while ago since Arden is only in school for 2 1/2 hours this year, which leaves no time to get anything done. So I jumped on the chance and have been training like crazy for the last two weeks.

I'm working with The Grocery Game, a service I've happily used for years now. You know those ladies who go to the store with a fist full of coupons, buy $300 worth of groceries and pay only $50 for the whole lot? The list was started by one of them. She decided to share the information she uses each week so other people could simply look at the list and decide what they want to buy that's at the rock bottom price that week. The List shows which coupons (if any) to use, what the final price is, and what the % saved is. It really does all the work for you - I spend maybe 20 minutes cutting out every coupon I might ever be interested in each Sunday morning, then pop over to the List and match up what I'd like to buy. And I save around 30% on my grocery bill each week, sometimes more. I get high-end stuff (coupons are almost always for brand names and not generics) for wee prices: I rarely pay more than $1.50 for shampoo (even Aussie or Fructis), almost never pay more than $1 for toothpaste, never pay more than $1.50 for a toothbrush, or more than $1.50 for a box of cereal. It's a pretty sweet deal, all told. If you aren't familiar, go check it out. Seriously. Anyway, I'm now helping make up the list for my area and working like crazy. And getting paid - woo hoo!

Another reason is I now have what my Neurologist calls an Idiopathic Essential Tremor. Tremor means I shake. Essential is the kind of tremor - I shake a little when I move for any reason. My hands shake, my legs shake when I walk, even my mouth tremors a bit when I talk. The Idiopathic means she has no idea why I have it, though she thinks it may have something to do with recent thyroid issues. In the meantime, we're trying out medication to help control the shaking. Unfortunately, what I've tried so far works on the shaking but leaves me tired and drugged and not really functional, which kind of defeats the purpose. So we're working on other medications to hopefully help. In the meantime, it makes fine motor things like typing, writing, oh and knitting very difficult. Hence the lack of crafty content. I'm working up the courage to start knitting again with the tremor, but it's frustrating and I feel a bit like I'm 80 years old when I try. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be caused by anything scary, so I'm grateful.

One more bit of news. I'm going back to school! I start at the end of the month taking pre-requisites to get into nursing school. I've always been fascinated by all things medical and have felt called to help people for as long as I can remember. Ultimately, I'd like to become a Nurse Practitioner, mainly because I like being in charge and that's not exactly going away any time soon. More importantly, that's what I want to do - see patients and help them hopefully get better and healthier. For now I'm taking one lone class this summer, then going full time in the Fall. Ought to be a bit crazy, but I'm then I do crazy quite well. I'm nervous, a bit scared, but very excited. Kind of odd to be 38 and going back to school, but it's good to finally have some idea of what I want to be when I grow up (though I don't necessarily plan on the growing up part).